In its quest for thinner, lighter phones, Samsung is considering a new design for the iconic S-Pen. The next Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be a bit thinner than the current model, with an S-Pen that more closely resembles an Apple Pencil. Such a change would come with some trade-offs: namely, that the S-Pen would require charging to function.

Most of Samsung’s phones have what’s called a digitizer — a thin layer of glass that translates touch input into something the phone understands. That digitizer takes up space, however, and a thinner option would allow phones to be even smaller. According to tipster Jukanlosreve, Samsung might do away with the digitizer on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in favor of the Active Electrostatic (AES) method.

This is the same method that Apple uses. It can work without a digitizer, but it forces the pen to supply the necessary electricity for touch input. And because the pen would need the ability to charge, it would become thicker.

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Samsung has already implemented a similar change to the South Korea-only Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. It’s as thin as it is because Samsung removed the digitizer, and that’s why the current S-Pen doesn’t work with that particular model.

The S-Pen can be charged now, but that’s only for Bluetooth functionality. Even a completely battery-wiped pen will still provide input to the Galaxy, and Samsung seems to be capitalizing on this. The site Jukanlosreve linked to suggests that Samsung targets users who want pen functionality and a much slimmer phone.

If Samsung does choose to forgo the built-in pen, it could reduce size by quite a bit (relatively speaking). The Z Fold Special Edition is 1.5mm slimmer than its non-SE cousin, with dimensions of 10.6mm folded and 4.9mm unfolded.

We don’t expect to see this change anytime soon. The Samsung Galaxy S25 is already in production, which means Samsung would need to resize the existing pen slot. If this change does happen, it isn’t likely to come until 2026 or later.